The performance of a communications apparatus may be tested by applying one or more input signals and evaluating the signal characteristics of one or more output signals. In particular, a transponder for use in a satellite may undergo extensive pre-flight testing to check and characterise its performance, in terms of its output signal characteristics and/or a radiation pattern of its antenna arrangement.
Such transponders are configured to carry several communication channels. For example, a satellite transponder operating in the Ka band may transmit and receive signals for over a hundred communication channels. This may require a corresponding number of connections to the transponder via one or more test interfaces, resulting in a complex testing arrangement. This may be problematical where the testing environment is a vacuum chamber, since there may be insufficient space to accommodate the test interfaces and connectors required for testing each channel.
An object of the present invention is the facilitation of improved multi-channel testing of a communications apparatus.